Mike “Typo” Bassett, the devoted Super Smash Bros. Melee player who continues to shatter distance ceilings in the title’s Home Run Contest mini-game, recently surpassed another decade-old record, this time with Pokémon mainstay Jigglypuff. And now, with a massive goal within reach, he’s well on his way to becoming the…

After skipping 2016, long-running Super Smash Bros. tournament series Tipped Off is set to return to the state of Georgia this weekend for its twelfth installment. But while the weeks leading up an event of this caliber are typically a time to promote the upcoming competition, the festivities have taken on a dour tone…

It was 2am in early September. Yuichiro Takahashi was in his room eating a Crunky chocolate bar, listening to the RWBY soundtrack and staring at the English sentences on his monitor. If anything might help change the Super Smash Bros. Melee scene in Japan, perhaps this would. He pressed publish.

It’s an unfortunate truth of our imperfect world that security concerns arise whenever a significant group of people gather in a centralized area. Competitive gaming tournaments are no different, but a uniquely Super Smash Bros. situation arose at a major event last weekend thanks to a piece of dated hardware that…

A venue-wide ban on a modernized Super Smash Bros. controller at a major tournament last weekend has re-heated the debate about what kind of controllers should be used in Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments.

In the 16 years since Super Smash Brothers: Melee came out, it has gotten harder and harder for Smash tournaments and pro players to keep using the controller for which it was originally made. GameCube controllers are getting old. The best ones are are hard to find and expensive to maintain. And some players complain…

Over the course of three years, an impostor convinced the Smash community—as well as her friends, housemates and girlfriend—that she was a reclusive and revered programmer behind the famous Smash mod, Project M, several sources close to the issue say.

Super Smash Brothers: Melee pro Adam “Armada” Lindgren has stepped down from his position as a panelist for the game’s rules committee to open it up for more female representation. The committee, spearheaded by the community platform Melee It On Me, aims to standardize all Melee tournament guidelines.

Last Sunday, as two top League of Legends teams battled in Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden in front of thousands of cheering fans, a stadium usher grumbled a complaint that a lot of first-time esports spectators mention. The pro players, whose facial expressions appeared in close-up on big screens all over the stadium,…

On Sunday night, the Super Smash Brothers: Melee tournament at Shine 2017 forced a controversial rematch between William “Leffen” Hjelte and Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez, partway through the Top 8 finals. It all came down to a new rule about a Melee controller modification.

Johnny “S2J” Kim started a chair-raising trend this past weekend at Shine 2017, a Super Smash Brothers major at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA. It all started during Saturday’s Melee pools and lasted through the rest of the weekend.

Team SoloMid is producing an episodic documentary about the controversial Super Smash Bros. Melee pro William “Leffen” Hjelte, whom they sponsor. So far, it’s a candid look at the Hjelte’s approach to the game and how the community’s received him.

Five prominent Super Smash Brothers: Melee tournament organizers and players have formed a competition committee and released a recommended ruleset for tournament play, including a lengthy section imposing a “tentative ban” on the use of non-Gamecube controllers. The ruleset writers explained that the 16-year-old…

In the Super Smash Bros. Melee community, how you play can matter far more than who you are. Recently, a top Melee player made his grand re-entry into the game’s competitive scene a little over a year after assaulting a Florida gas station clerk, causing a rift among fans and pros over whether it’s proficiency or…

The Home Run Contest mode in Super Smash Brothers looks straightforward. You choose one of the game’s fighters and face off against an inanimate sandbag. As a 10-second timer counts down, you try to inflict as much damage as possible on the bag. Depending on how much damage you dole out, the bag could end up flying…